The right to intimacy serves as both a realm of domination as well as a form of resistance under Israeli settler-colonialism.
By Izzeddin Araj, Mondoweiss
According to new rules that come into force on October 20, foreigners in the West Bank who fall in love with Palestinians must inform Israeli authorities of this romantic interest. This bizarre, nonetheless terrifying news is another testament to how Israel’s apartheid regime seeks to brazenly control our lives and bodies. For me as a Palestinian, it comes as no surprise.

In fact, as many scholars have argued, Israel’s settler-colonial character precisely manifests through such a logic of entitlement – where the state seeks to dominate indigenous bodies and determine the ways they exist in the world – how they live, move, get sick and heal, and how they love and reproduce.
The idea that bureaucrats and officials feel entitled to determine every single aspect of Palestinian life (including whom we love and how we do that) is beyond the concept of control, it is about the institutionalization of a decades-long colonial fantasy about enslaving Palestinian bodies. This logic of entitlement has defined decades of oppression in Israel/ Palestine. Palestinians have long known this and therefore seem less shocked by the new rules. Over the course of my work on reproduction and intimacy politics in Palestine, I have visited several families wrenched apart by Israeli apartheid – children who have never met their fathers, bedrooms abandoned on the Israeli army’s orders, and partners whose access to conjugal togetherness is mediated by a militarized state.
Recent Posts
American Jews Are More Ambivalent About Israel Than Ever
June 2, 2023
Take Action Now Grappling with a far-right government and growing awareness of the Nakba, American Jews revealed mixed feelings marking…
Weapons Manufacturers Are Overjoyed About The Debt Ceiling Deal
June 2, 2023
Take Action Now Lockheed Martin’s James Taiclet called the bill ‘as good an outcome as our industry or our company could ask for.’……
Police Arrest Organizers Behind Cop City Protester Bail Fund
June 2, 2023
Take Action Now “There is no First Amendment in Atlanta,” wrote activist Micah Herskind. By Sharo n Zhang, truthout Law enforcement officers in…
Why There Should Be A Treaty Against The Use Of Weaponized Drones
June 1, 2023
Take Action Now “The military goods sold at CANSEC are used in wars, but also by security forces in the repression of human rights defenders, civil…